English Suite No. 5

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Moonstones, Beads, Graphite on Paper

100x70cm

2023

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Once upon a time, a girl called Zuzana Rúzickova began taking piano lessons after suffering from pneumonia at the age of nine, as a reward for her recovery. Shortly thereafter World War II began and she was sent to a concentration camp.

Before being sent to Auschwitz she transcribed a Bach piece onto paper to bring with her to the camp. That piece was the English Suite No. 5 in E minor.

„I wanted to have a piece of Bach with me as a sort of talisman because I didn‘t know what was awaiting us. You always feel in his music that God is present somehow.“

She survived and became an award-winning harpsichordist and was the first to have recorded all of Bach‘s complete works for keyboard.

 

I took the same piece by Bach, marking every pause and break with praying beads and moonstones, rendering it silent. If played, this piece would make no sound, mute just like the void left by those who didn‘t survive. 

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